Agent Orange: The Perpetual Consequences
Generations of Vietnamese civilians exposed to a perilous chemical: all due to the spraying of an herbicide over Vietnam’s jungles. The Vietnam War was between the Communist North Vietnam and the United States. The conflict became global when Communist-supportive countries began sending reinforcements to the Vietnamese and the United States gained support from its allies. The Viet Cong soldiers knew their jungles by heart and used the plant cover to their benefit, hiding from the US Army in strategic places. To combat the newfound advantage, the United States developed an herbicide called Agent Orange, which would be sprayed over the dense jungles and kill all of the trees. After the war, Agent Orange …show more content…
Environmentally speaking, Agent Orange had done its job as “the chemical killed and defoliated 90 to 95 percent of the treated vegetation” (Agent Orange Contamination, 2008, pp.15). In terms of the entire country, 10% of Vietnam had been sprayed and effectively destroyed. Coastlines had been badly eroded and the once flourishing jungles were devoid of vegetation. 36% of all mangrove trees, the habitat of multiple species and the breeding grounds of fish, were demolished. The forests which were home to tigers, goat, deer, and seabirds were left barren. The pictures on the left from When Technology Fails show a before and after view of an area sprayed with Agent Orange. In the top photo, there is no space other than the river that is uninhabited by trees but in the bottom photo, the entire forest is gone and there is only barren land. Agent Orange persisted through the years and as an environmental hazard, it inhibited much of the recovery of the jungles. Remnants of the herbicide could be found in the dirt, in which one study found that “the contamination, up to 40,000 parts per billion, was considered "unacceptable" by the military after the war” (Agent Orange Contamination, 2008, p.19). The EPA originally considered one part per billion of dioxin to be poisonous, but that number has been lowering as more evidence is uncovered to show dioxin’s …show more content…
TCDD, a toxic by-product of the herbicide, is a well-known teratogen, meaning that it can disrupt the normal functioning of embryos and fetuses in both animals and humans. In humans it is mainly a carcinogen, known to cause soft tissue sarcoma, a very rare type of cancer. According to Agent Orange Contamination (2008), TCDD is “so potent a killer that just three ounces of it placed in New York City's water supply could wipe out the populace” (p. 20). An acute study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Oncology (2015), investigated the range of Vietnam veterans who had MGUS, a predecessor stage to multiple myeloma cancer. The study showed that double the amount of the veterans who handled Agent Orange had MGUS as compared to ones who fought in Vietnam but were not exposed to the herbicide. They were constantly exposed to the herbicide, even though it was claimed to only affect the plants. Some men even reported skin rashes after the spraying, but it was blamed on the humidity and forgotten about ("Still fighting: Park River veteran devoted to raising awareness of Agent Orange.", 2015). The soldiers’ exposure to the chemical could have occurred in many ways, but the civilian population have a greater problem. Dioxin and TCDD run in their
Generations of Vietnamese civilians exposed to a perilous chemical: all due to the spraying of an herbicide over Vietnam’s jungles. The Vietnam War was between the Communist North Vietnam and the United States. The conflict became global when Communist-supportive countries began sending reinforcements to the Vietnamese and the United States gained support from its allies. The Viet Cong soldiers knew their jungles by heart and used the plant cover to their benefit, hiding from the US Army in strategic places. To combat the newfound advantage, the United States developed an herbicide called Agent Orange, which would be sprayed over the dense jungles and kill all of the trees. After the war, Agent Orange …show more content…
Environmentally speaking, Agent Orange had done its job as “the chemical killed and defoliated 90 to 95 percent of the treated vegetation” (Agent Orange Contamination, 2008, pp.15). In terms of the entire country, 10% of Vietnam had been sprayed and effectively destroyed. Coastlines had been badly eroded and the once flourishing jungles were devoid of vegetation. 36% of all mangrove trees, the habitat of multiple species and the breeding grounds of fish, were demolished. The forests which were home to tigers, goat, deer, and seabirds were left barren. The pictures on the left from When Technology Fails show a before and after view of an area sprayed with Agent Orange. In the top photo, there is no space other than the river that is uninhabited by trees but in the bottom photo, the entire forest is gone and there is only barren land. Agent Orange persisted through the years and as an environmental hazard, it inhibited much of the recovery of the jungles. Remnants of the herbicide could be found in the dirt, in which one study found that “the contamination, up to 40,000 parts per billion, was considered "unacceptable" by the military after the war” (Agent Orange Contamination, 2008, p.19). The EPA originally considered one part per billion of dioxin to be poisonous, but that number has been lowering as more evidence is uncovered to show dioxin’s …show more content…
TCDD, a toxic by-product of the herbicide, is a well-known teratogen, meaning that it can disrupt the normal functioning of embryos and fetuses in both animals and humans. In humans it is mainly a carcinogen, known to cause soft tissue sarcoma, a very rare type of cancer. According to Agent Orange Contamination (2008), TCDD is “so potent a killer that just three ounces of it placed in New York City's water supply could wipe out the populace” (p. 20). An acute study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Oncology (2015), investigated the range of Vietnam veterans who had MGUS, a predecessor stage to multiple myeloma cancer. The study showed that double the amount of the veterans who handled Agent Orange had MGUS as compared to ones who fought in Vietnam but were not exposed to the herbicide. They were constantly exposed to the herbicide, even though it was claimed to only affect the plants. Some men even reported skin rashes after the spraying, but it was blamed on the humidity and forgotten about ("Still fighting: Park River veteran devoted to raising awareness of Agent Orange.", 2015). The soldiers’ exposure to the chemical could have occurred in many ways, but the civilian population have a greater problem. Dioxin and TCDD run in their